NC News Roundup: Midterm elections on horizon; reaction to operation in Venezuela; protests over killing in Minneapolis

This is due south on WUNC. I'm Jeff Tiberi. A major news out of Venezuela and Minneapolis has led to protests and some reaction in North Carolina. And speaking of Durham, hundreds of protesters took to the streets tonight to protest what they call the unjustified murder of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good. We'll discuss that major story ahead in our Friday News Roundup. Meanwhile, this week marked five years since the January 6th Act of Domestic Terrorism at the U.S. Capitol. People that harm police officers and destroy federal buildings should go to prison. And it's a damn shame they're out because nearly three dozen of them have actually been arrested for another crime since they were parted. Those stories plus a glimpse of the local housing market and a forecast of the quickly approaching midterm. Do South begins after the news. of North Carolina Public Radio in Chapel Hill. This is due south on WUNC for the first time in 2026. Welcome in to our North Carolina Friday News Roundup. I'm Jeff Tabir. Glad to have you along from wherever you may be joining us. We'll greet our reporters in one minute. To ice, get the fuck out of Minneapolis. We do not want you here. Your stated reason for being in this city is to create some kind of safety and you are doing exactly the opposite. That name was heard throughout downtown Durham tonight as several hundred protesters marched throughout the city in honor of Renee Good. We acted on bad advice. We let bad people go and we sit the message that if you come to this Capitol and you've got the right president in office, he's going to let you get past. things that would not want any one of us would get away with if we did it back in our home state. American forces conducted a covert mission to remove the autocratic socialist leader and his wife from the country. For now, it's a cause for cheer for many of the estimated 25,000 Venezuelan expats in North Carolina. Yikes, what a week. If this is what is on tap for the next, I don't know, 50, 51 weeks, buckle up. Here for the hour to help us get caught up on what is happening really around the world. And some of the reverberations here in North Carolina are Don Vaughn, Capital Bureau Chief at the News and Observer. Brian Anderson, statewide politics reporter for the Assembly, also creator of the Anderson Alerts newsletter. Zach Eanes is with us on the Zoom reporter with Axios Raleigh and also on the line DB. Danielle Bataglia Capitol Hill correspondent at McClatchia. Happy belated New Year, everybody. Hello, hello. Welcome in. Hello. Thanks for having us. Hello. We would like to incorporate some of your questions today. So if you've got them, please send them along. Do South. at WUNC.org. We're going to begin the show today, admittedly, right where we did yesterday, which is with the reaction and what is happening here in North Carolina following the killing of Renee Good, the Minneapolis woman who was shot in the face by a federal ice agent during an altercation that quickly escalated on Wednesday. Curious, anybody jump in here, what are North Carolina leaders saying or not saying in response to the violence earlier this week? Don Vaughn.

I don't know if it's really, I guess, spread like full force to North Carolina yet. I think just because it's so fresh and, of course, focus in Minneapolis. I haven't seen a lot yet. I think that we're going to. You know, there's been, you know, some immediate protests in response. There's already been protests over ICE when ICE on Border Patrol, you know, had ramped up here. So I feel like it's, you know, more of what it's been. And I think we're going to see things. I feel like this is a galvanizing moment in the country that. People talk about that this was the moment when things came to a head, I guess. A galvanizing moment. I saw questions this week on social media of could this be a tipping point? I think it's a very valid question. I remain skeptical. We can get into that or not. But Danielle, I had a question that just slipped away from me. But what has been the – oh, this is the question I was going to ask. Thom Tillis, of course, was outspoken against federal – ice raids before they came to Charlotte, then after they came to Charlotte, Thom Tillis said he wanted answers. Thom Tillis has been outspoken to a degree on this issue. What has he said here in the last 48 hours? You know, to be honest, I'm going to be like, Don, this is an issue because there has been so, like such a floodgate of news this week. I feel like a lot of the North Carolina reaction has been very much stifled by other reaction to other stories. And so I've seen them talk about it, but very much in Republicans on one side, Democrats on. the other side, very much partisan lines that you would think you would see in these moments. I do think Senator Ted Budd had come out and very specifically said no matter what this is a tragedy for this family. I'm not quoting him directly, but that was the kind of the verbiage behind what he said, regardless of what side you stand on. And I thought that was a moment that we all should take note of because I... I don't know that I've seen something like that from him before. Protests this week in Greensboro, Durham and Charlotte, among other locations. You heard a clip both just a moment ago here on due south. As it pertinent, this might be a little bit of a reach, but I did want to hear from y'all on this because it struck me that this happened on January 7th, 26, five years in a day after January 6th, 2021. Both of these incidents are... You know, they're playing as day. They're available to you in video form. I know what I saw on January 6th, 2021. I know what I saw, which I hadn't, but I did watch it on January 7th, 2026. And I can't help but think about the instant messaging here. And it didn't happen as much five years ago from my recollection. But some people will call it a whitewashing. Some people will call it just kind of a denial of what was right there in front of us.

Take that and build on it if any of you want to. Zach Eans, jump in here. Well, I think there was a remarkable moment. Obviously, none of us were reporting it, but the New York Times sat down with President Trump in the Oval Office. And it literally got his live reaction to watching the video. And I think you can see how his message even changed before seeing the video and after seeing the video. I think the video is, it's sort of a Rorschach test a little bit at the moment in the country. But it's a shocking video. And I think... That's the whole thing with these. People have eyes. People can see and people are making their own reactions. And it's just very interesting to see. you know, how the administrations are messaging around this. I mean, if you look at, like, you know, the hundreds of people that gathered in Durham last night, they're very clear what they saw was wrong. And, you know, at the same time, you have the administration trying, trying to hold this line about, you know, what they're doing in Minneapolis is being correct. Don. I think on January 6th, it's, I mean, not just one video. There's been a couple different angles of videos of Minneapolis, but January 6th, I mean, hours and hours and thousands of videos, and we've seen it. We all saw it. We all know who died. We all saw the, you know, police being attacked. And it's kind of mind-boggling that... Sometimes people can choose not to see what's in from your face, but we all saw it five years ago. We all saw it. There's no way to say that, like, that didn't happen. Unless you some, unless you cannot see or unless you have chosen not to see it, but those images are there, they're widely available. I will say this again later in the show, but of course, this was an act of domestic terrorism that took place five years ago, and the president has tried to recalibrate it as a day of love. I say domestic terrorism. That's what the FBI said. I say Day of Love. That's what the president said. This is not me editorializing here. But that has, that's been my word, recalibration of what really transpired. Danielle, you had a thought. Yeah, I think it's really interesting to watch. Anything regarding January 6, especially sitting at the U.S. Capitol, I wasn't there on January 6. I did not come back. I grew up in Washington, but I didn't come back up here until 11 months later because I had been working in Raleigh at the time. But there's such a raw emotion. Anytime January 6 is brought up when you are in the U.S. Capitol, you see it on the police officers' faces, you see it on the senator's faces, you see it on staff's faces, even the reporters who were in the building.

You know, from being at the congressional hearings to having the different lawsuits come out or court records come out, transcripts come out. Anything regarding January 6 brings up this tension in that building that you can feel so. intently. And I'm one of the ones who's called it whitewashing this week in one of my articles because you look at the White House website right now and they are rewriting history trying to make it look like. They legitimately said police caused this, that police were the ones escalating tension at the Capitol that day, not the rioters. And they are trying to rewrite the history on this and make it sound like it wasn't what it was. And like Don said, and we all saw the video. We saw what happened that day. And there's no getting around that. I believe there are four people who died on January 6th. There are multiple law enforcement officers who died after January 6th, 2021. We will talk about that a little bit later in the show. And this is important to note, we would be remiss if we didn't just remind listeners. And I know they know that of these rioters, of these hundreds and hundreds and more than 1,000 people who carried out these acts and this collective act of domestic terrorism, the president of the United States has pardoned more than 1,500 of them. Brian. Yeah, I think another through line between the events is just this immediate spinning of what had happened. And, you know, President Trump after January 6 saying, you know, these were peaceful people and even members of Congress saying they were peacefully entering the Capitol, which is clearly not true about January 6th. It's just this immediate spinning of it. And I remember, you know, for the ice shooting, if we want to call it that, you had. Department of Homeland Security Twitter account spinning what's very clearly plainly visible in a video. Not right. Yeah. And so maybe it's different that because these videos are out there on social media, because there's live broadcast of January 6th. these agencies feel a need to react instantly. But I remember a time where it was just like, you know, we're going to conduct an investigation. We will let you know the conclusion of that investigation. We will let the people know now. It's just immediate spinning. We've got to step aside here in a moment. We're coming up on a break. But I, you know, there are a lot of questions here. We saw what we saw, but will there be additional video that comes available from the ICE agents? That's one question I have. And. Another parallel that I couldn't help but think of this week was the fact that this happened that Renee Good was killed, quite bluntly in cold blood in Minneapolis, where George Floyd was also killed by law enforcement. And justice in that case was brought about in part because of video.

If we didn't have the video of George Floyd being killed, would there ever have been justice there? I don't know. And we don't know what's going to happen here. Much more to learn. We hope, we think, in the days and weeks to come. But it is certainly something that, as Don Bonn pointed out, could be a seminal moment here in 2026. in America. We're just getting going. Much more to discuss with Zach Eans, Don Vaughn, Daniel Bataglia, and Brian Anderson. Please stay with us. This is the Friday News Roundup, North Carolina style on due south on WUNC. Welcome back to the Friday News Roundup on Due South. I'm Jeff Tiberi. The first woman to ever serve in the North Carolina General Assembly assumed her post 105 years ago this week. Lillian Exum Clement was also notably the first female state legislator anywhere in the American South. Exum's patterns of firsts began in the previous decade when she passed the bar and started practicing criminal law without any male partners, the first woman to do so in our state. At the legislature, Exum introduced bills requiring voter privacy and another that sought to allow the state to sterilize, quote, mentally incompetent individuals. Exum represented Buncombe County for one term. Sadly, she died young of pneumonia in 1925. There is some dispute about when exactly she was born, but it is believed that Lillian Exam Clement passed away before her 40th birthday. We are forever seeking those morsels of North Carolina history for this moment at just about 20 minutes past the hour on Fridays. If you ever have a good one, send it along. Do South. at WUNC.org. Let's stick with another major event in recent days, also well outside of our state, to be clear. This was the operation carried out in Venezuela. Some of the candidates for an open U.S. Senate seat, one of North Carolina's U.S. senators had much to say and offered reaction here. Danielle, let's start maybe with Republican U.S. Senator Ted Bud. Yeah, he talked to me a lot about this one. He serves on one of the committees that will be dealing with this. And so he had talked to me, both him and Thom Tillis are very supportive of President Donald Trump's actions in Venezuela. And what Senator Bud told me was now is the time for oversight from Congress. He does not mind that the president didn't. get or get permission from Congress to take this action in Venezuela. And so now he says it's the time to step in and get that oversight that they're seeking now, which is the intelligence the president knew before and after going into Venezuela. He also wants to know what the plan is going forward for.

I don't know if that would be taking over the country or whatever the plan is there. I know that's been very complicated in the aftermath. And he also wants to know more about the injuries that were sustained by various people who had. either been on the ground or in that mission. You say whatever the plan is there. Some of us are unconvinced that there is, at the moment, a concrete plan. I don't even say that playfully. What is the effort, what is the thought from the North Carolina congressional delegation on the United States running what has long been its own sovereign nation in Venezuela? Have we heard from the senators and esteemed House reps on this? You know, in the immediate aftermath of the attack in Venezuela, I don't think anybody knew. I mean, they obviously did not know this was going to happen. They made that very clear. I don't think they knew what the plan was. I talked to them Monday. They had not been briefed at that point. They were going to be briefed midweek. And the only thing I think we solidly know is that we want the oil. And that's it. I mean, there is a level of transparency here. I mean, there's an openness. I mean, there have been other instances in American history in which there have been efforts to be involved in whatever you want to call it, nation building or geopolitical. incidents because of oil, but the president is to credit. I don't even know the best word, but that is out in the open here. Before we move on from this, anything notable from the campaign trails as it pertains to the rhetoric following Venezuela. Yeah, so Michael Whatley's campaign, who's running for U.S. Senate, he's the former RNC chairman. He was not made available to me to speak with. Governor Cooper, who's also running for Senate, he was very much focused on this being a takeover for the oil industry. And then Michelle Morrow and Don Brown, who are also both running for Senate. They're both very much pro. taking over Venezuela. They're in the camp of the president and don't see anything wrong with the actions that he took. Primary in that U.S. Senate race and open U.S. Senate contest. Early voting begins a month from Monday. I couldn't believe that. I looked at that. And mail and ballots are going out next week. Mail and ballots are going out next week. Okay. Zach Keynes, we're going to turn to state legislative happenings or non-happinings in a moment. But Duke Energy would like to build and operate a new nuclear reactor, something the electric company has not done in four decades. How come?

Yeah, this is, you know, this is an interesting moment for our major utility here in the States. They've had a lot of, you know, sort of issues before the General Assembly here in the past few years. This sort of directly relates to the carbon reduction plan, the state put forward with Duke Energy in 2021. You know, the goal of that is to be carbon neutral by 2050. And if that is to happen, Duke sees nuclear as really being one of the main ways they can do that. Obviously, the timelines on some of these carbon reductions have been changed in recent laws with the General Assembly, but that 2050 deadline still is in place for now. And yeah, this nuclear facility is, nobody's really built much of these in the United States. There was one built in Georgia a few years ago, but that has basically been it for a while. But the interesting thing about this reactor and this plan, this plan that was submitted is that it would actually be for a small modular reactor. And this is a new technology that hasn't been deployed anywhere in the United States. And it's still kind of considered, you know, experimental. And so there are a lot of advocates that are saying, you know, Duke's pushing ahead with these plans that are really unfounded where Duke is like, we see this really promising technology. And this would not come online until 2037, you know, is in some ways very far away, but also not that far away. And yeah, I think it would be, this would be a significant change. This would happen on the site of a former, you know, coal plant in Stokes County that would be retired and switched over to nuclear in the coming years. Yeah, I think it's whether or not it actually happens or what technology they finally choose, this is the first step on what is going to be a long journey to building a new nuclear facility. This actually makes me really nervous because I was a breaking news reporter out there for so long. And that site is a lake that a lot of people use for boating and swimming and all kinds of things. And there are so many drownings around that particular site because basically the lake was created by covering up a town and people get caught up in all this debris. And having a nuclear facility right there is just... Kind of crazy to me. This is Blue's Lake we're talking about. That lake is warmer than other lakes because of that sort of coal plan. So my parents growing up would often go out there because the water was warmer to swim in. A natural hot tub. Anyone swim in it because it scares me. Are we talking about Blues Lake in Stokes County? Yes. Okay. Interesting. Real quick on this one. In order for this to, I guess, progress across the next 12 years, Duke would need both federal and state approval, if you know. Yes, this current application is with the federal nuclear agency and sort of it follows all sort of safety and sort of other tests that these facilities need to go through. I think this specific application is 18 months, but yeah, they will have to work with state. I think they're pitching it as Duke Energy says it's the largest tax contributor in Stokes County. So I think there probably will be some.

you know uh arguments that you know that this this would be a good economic you know thing for this part of the state there are no nuclear facilities in the triad currently the ones in north carolina are on the coast okay obviously it's charon harris here in uh in uh in wait county and then also north of charlotte okay and i would imagine much of this is necessary because of a growing population a taxed grid and uh ai and all the electricity that that consumes yeah duke has been very clear that you know they see demand soaring over the next you know decade um a lot of that from AI, but obviously there's a growing population and a lot of factories that this state is trying to build at the moment. You know, whether or not, you know, reality hits where that demand is, I think we'll depend on, you know, this AI, what this AI situation looks like over the next decade. Do South, Friday News Roundup, here on WUNC. We're chatting with Zakiens of Axios, Danielle Bataglia, and Don Vaughn of the N&O slash McClatchy, as well as Brian Anderson, of the assembly. Trivia Time, maybe for you to earn a stylish new DoSouth mug. Trivia portion of the week requires you to send in a correct response to doSouth at WUNC.org. This week's question, a simple one. It's not political or news-related, I don't think. Name the legendary jazz drummer who hails from Pasquitank County. Name the legendary jazz drummer who hails from Pasquotank County. Brian Anderson's looking at me, like I just asked him a question in Swahili. Go ahead. I was just complaining off the air about how I've never gotten a single trivia question right from due south so far. And my jazz fan officianto dad will be very disappointed in me for not knowing this one. Zach Eanes, as cool as Bryce Young in the two-minute drill, just... Just typed it into the Zoom chat. Zach Eames knows what it is, but we won't say it just yet. So send your correct responses to DoSouth at WNC.org. All right, Don Vaugh, a new year, same impasse, state budget. There's no update for our listeners, is there? No. You're laughing. That's good. We're laughing. Every time I think of something, you know, you talked about early voting. We were working on our candidate questionnaires. And I have a question about the budget. And my editor goes, well, what if they pass a budget by the time of the primary? We'll have bigger problems because pigs will be flying in the sky at that moment before March. I laughed and laughed and then thought.

Don't even give me that seed of like there would be some action. But no, nothing's happening. And I don't think it's going to for a while. And there was one non-update update update. Senator Berger went on TV station. I forget what I think PBS and said that. when we return in April was part of his quote. So I watched that too as he was on PBS state lines and yeah. So clearly nothing by the primary you should be safe for. I don't think anyone thinks anything's going to happen before. Let me offer something I think slightly more tangible. As a reminder to listeners, the main point of the impasse between the House and the Senate has to do with tax cuts, tax reductions. but we'll set aside the future debate for a moment. There are some tax cuts that went into effect at the beginning of the month, if I've got it right. Yeah. So the individual income tax rate is now down to 3.99% for 2026. Now, when you are doing your taxes in these coming months, the reduction is for this new tax year. But the 2025 tax year, it was down to 4.25% which is lower. than it was previously two. So you will be paying less on your individual income taxes and the corporate income tax rate also went down. But that's a big change. And this is a deal they've had in the works for a really long time. The budget fight is over the... the revenue triggers for these additional tax cuts going into 2027. Right. And maybe in very simple layperson terms, it's money in, money out. And if you cut taxes, it's less money in. Therefore, you have less money to appropriate. Right. And that's the heart of this whole thing. And the GOP argument to the flip side is, you know, if we lower taxes, that'll bring more people into the state, more businesses into the state, and that will be a net. Well, that's the Senate argument. I don't know if the House is fully on board with that. Well, I mean, essentially what we have right now, is a lack of incentives for a deal where if you're in the Senate side, you already got your tax cuts in 2023. Why come back to the table and negotiate against yourself? If you're at the House, you know, Destin Hall, the speaker has made a push to present himself as, you know, the economically minded, middle class minded person that maybe past leadership has not. has not favored. The House still wants tax cuts, just not at that particular rate. They want to make sure more money is coming in. They want to put a pause button on planned forthcoming taxes. They still want lower taxes than what has previously happened. But there would be a pause button on the House side. And the Senate has argued, well, if you hit the pause button, that's effectively increasing taxes from what we had already agreed upon. But certainly all Republicans would like lower taxes. It's just a question of how you do it. I need a CPA, I think. But there is also worth noting a different pause button that I think some in the House are hitting or want to hit because we have a primary here in less than two months. And Phil Berger.

It's his seat to lose. It's been his seat for two decades. But if he loses, he becomes a lame duck leader of the North Carolina Senate. And that probably is advantageous to the House and the budget negotiations. I've never experienced where a leader has lost like this. If Burger did lose, so that's, that I think will be wild with whatever happens. I think you have to go back to, I think it was Hackney the last time it happened. It has not happened in state politics in a very long time. And it would upend just fundamentally change the leverage that Phil Berger has in this budget. It would be like a story of the year, really. It would be huge. To paraphrase Western Carolina political scientist Chris Cooper, please ignore internal polls. That's my advice to people over the next two months is actually get on the ground, talk to voters. What I think is also being lost in this discussion about Berger is the House is also going to see substantial change. I looked at how many House. members have either said they're not running for reelection or face a competitive primary in March. That figures 42 percent of House Republican lawmakers, 42 percent of them, whereas on the Senate side, it's around 20 percent for Senate Republicans and for Senate Democrats, it's 10 percent. And so I think. there's going to be turnover and there's always surprises in primaries. And what's going to be interesting is if there's a whole new cast of characters coming into play in 2027 in the House and Senate, does that incentivize a deal for this year? Or does that make you say we can kick the can down the road? Well, the new cast of characters is why there's not a deal because there's a new House speaker, Weston Hall, because Tim Moore is in Congress now. So that's part of it because the deal was during Moore's time. And another huge overarching variable as we think about the legislature. Heading into 2027 and what happens this year with the elections is whether or not Democrats are able to break supermajorities and give Governor Stein a veto with real teeth going to next year because that can change the dynamic of power as well. Much more to come on state politics in the election across 2026. So bear with us. All right. It has been five years, as we noted earlier in the show, since the attack on the U.S. Capitol, an act of domestic terrorism that President Trump has sought to rebrand as a day of love. One officer died of a stroke in the aftermath of January 6th. Four other officers who responded to the riot later died by suicide. And Senator Thom Tillis wants to honor those fallen law enforcement officials with a plaque at the U.S. Capitol. Danielle, tell us more about this effort and what Thom Tillis had to say this week. Yeah, he came out very forcefully. And this is not a surprise from Thom Tillis. He has long said he was the last senator in the chamber on, I keep on any of call it September 11th, on January 6th, very different days. And, you know, he talked about seeing that as he walked out of the chamber, a couple different things. He watched the parliamentarians, like, be so focused on making sure that the... ballots were safe that like nothing would happen that would stop them from certifying the election and being so focused on their jobs. And then the law enforcement officers keeping the senators safe as they were moved off the floor. He said they were never in harm's way on the Senate side. And also just watching the senators, or the law enforcement, they were moving past.

with their injuries, like he was actually seeing that in real time, that their heads had been smashed indoors and they were, you know, suffering from various injuries as he walked past them to safety. And he learned this week that one of the reasons how Speaker Mike Johnson says that he will not hang this plaque is because the way that lawmakers had written the law to hang a plaque in the capital to honor these law enforcement officers. is that every name of every officer who responded to the U.S. Capitol has to be listed on this plaque. When they made the plaque, it only lists the law enforcement agencies. This is what Johnson says prevents them from hanging it. So update from my story that I wrote earlier this week. Yesterday, Senator Merckley and Thom Tillis came together on the floor, and they got unanimous consent to hang the plaque. on the Senate side of Congress until the entire body of Congress can come together with an agreement on how to rectify the situation. So the plaque will be hung up. We're waiting on the architect of the Capitol to make that happen, but it is now going to be hung. Can I just point? Yeah, you may, because I'm going to get in trouble if I speak right now. I was just going to point out, you know, as it relates to Venezuela and whether or not you can go into a country, President Donald Trump has had a lot of power that Congress has maybe seated to him. But when it comes to this plaque, it seems that Congress cares. very, very, very much about process. And so if you're going to care so much about process, it might be, might be worth pointing out that there's a level of consistency that maybe Congress isn't practicing right now. I'm going to reiterate that one officer died of a stroke in the aftermath of January 6th and four other officers who responded to the riot later died by suicide. Daniel Bataglia just very briefly, when will this plaque go up? We do not know. We're waiting on the architect, the Capitol. I've seen them move very quickly and very slowly. They have a lot to do. I will say that. I don't want to minimize their work on the Capitol. But I did speak with Thom Tillis's staff either today or yesterday, and they are waiting to find that out. I'm hoping it's in the next week before I leave Congress. Danielle Bataglia is with us here on our North Carolina Friday News Roundup. So, too, is Brian Anderson, Zach Eans, and Don Vaughn. Much more to discuss as well as a bit of a primer toward 2026. We got some health news regarding a statewide candidate this week. Hey, that trivia question is just about due up. And the legendary jazz drummer who hails from Pasquitank County, due south at WDUNC.org. We'll be back in just a moment right here on WDUNC.

Welcome back to listener-supported WUNC. It's Dues South Friday News Roundup. 102 years ago this week in Pasquitang County, Maxwell Lemuel Roach was born. He went by Max, and he grew up to be a composer, pioneering jazz artist, and one of the greatest drummers of all time within his genre. Max Roach partnered with the likes of Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, the lonious Monk from Rocky Mount, I should note, and Stan Getz, among many, many other legends. Max Roach died in 2007 and was posthumously enshrined in the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame in 2009. I'd love to know not why, and maybe we'll figure this out. How in the world Max Roach wasn't enshrined in the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame while he was still alive, but that's a story for another day. Congratulations to Vic, who had the correct answer on today's trivia question. Zach Eans also had the correct answer, but Zach Eans already has a due Southmug, so he was ineligible. Danielle Batagli is throwing her paws up. Danielle Bataglia, who joins us from D.C., just realized that she doesn't have a D.South mug, but she'll get one in the weeks to come. We're just, we're going to do it that way. All right, let me just take through a couple more news briefs. Y'all jump in here if there's anything that you want to add. Otherwise, we're going to go to 2026 midterms in a moment. In Buncombe County, health officials are responding to three confirmed cases of measles while also managing outbreaks of chicken pox and whooping cough. According to Blue Ridge Public Radio, this is mostly affecting children. There are presently 89 cases of chicken pox, also known as Veracella, in Buncom. Health officials there are urging residents to review immunization records and or contact their health care providers. Avello Airlines is phasing down operations in the state, canceling three direct routes out of RDU, several more from ILM in Wilmington, including international flights to the Dominican Republic. The low-cost air carrier says it will remain at Concord Paget Regional Airport near Charlotte. Avello says it will... Additionally, cease ice-related deportation flights, which have brought national scrutiny and calls for boycotts to Avello. Don, please. On the previous item, Chickenpox. I'm from the era that everybody had it as kids. You and me both. And you don't want it. So I just wanted to put that out there. Still have, you know, vivid memories of the unpleasantness of chicken pox. The worst. Sorry to aid you on live radio. Did you have chicken pox or did you avoid it, my young friend? I did not have it. Yeah. Well, I did not want it, and folks would be wise to prevent getting it. Thanks, science. Well, there weren't the vaccines for it. I had it as well, and it was miserable, and lo and behold, we have a development, and you can, I think, all but certainly avoid chicken pox, and I would encourage you to do that. I've done so for my kids. I do not want my children to have chicken pox. Imagine that. The city of Charlotte still, indeed, has a professional football team. The Panthers slid into the playoffs despite a sub-500 record and will host the law.

Los Angeles Rams tomorrow at Bank of America Stadium kickoff set for just after 4.30 p.m. Carolina is a heavy underdog at home against the Rams. Yeah, they are an eight and nine team. I'll repeat, the only team in NFL history to make it to the playoffs on multiple occasions with a losing record. That's happened very seldom in history, but the Panthers have had a historic... season and I'm sure it will not end tomorrow, but more importantly perhaps. You're sure. Will not end tomorrow? No, I'm kind of being a little trying to be funny. But I'm a Buffalo Bills fan and I'm not terribly optimistic about them either this weekend. So we'll see what happens. Everybody loves a comeback story. Five times in the history of the NFL, a losing team has made the playoffs. And they get to host this time. It's either twice or three times that the Panthers have done this. There ain't nine. They're at home. You're saying there's a chance. I think there's probably a chance. We will check in on the 2026 midterms regularly here on the Friday News Roundup as we run up to the primary and then in all the hullabaloo between then and November the third, I believe it is this year. One race this year for the state Supreme Court, it pits Anita Earls, the Democratic incumbent against Republican Sarah Stevens, a sitting state house member. And there was some campaign adjacent health news. we learned about this week. Brian? Yeah. State Supreme Court Justice Anita Earle, she's a Democrat running for re-election. She had announced in a video that she was diagnosed with breast cancer late last year, but she says fortunately it was detected early, encouraged people to get their mammograms and make sure that people take as much care of themselves. proactively as they can. And that's unfortunately something she has in common with her Republican opponent, Sarah Stevens, who also has had a history of breast cancer. She's a two-time survivor. I believe Stevens' last treatment was in March or April of 2024. And this is, you know, something that you don't want to see any candidate have to go through. And it's unfortunately something both have had in common. But they say that it's not an issue for their... that would prevent them from running for office. So they're still pressing forward. And something that obviously still afflicts many women, some men, but many women. And perhaps it'll, perhaps they're able to come together and, I don't know, raise further awareness and help with this cause of dealing with breast cancer. I do want to note on the state Supreme Court race, there's no primary on either side, and it's expected to be one of the most, if not the most expensive, state Supreme Court race in the history of North Carolina. So that'll be an interesting statewide one to watch as we get going here. Midterms are often, so often, when intra-party fractures are on full display. There was a good example of this recently, really now it's living and breathing from Mecklenburg County where the rhetoric of one... state legislator, a Democrat has ultimately led to her facing some stiff opposition from her own party. Don, remind us how State Representative Carla Cunningham landed in this predicament.

Well, last summer during the veto override, so the General Assembly Republicans have near total control. They have a veto-proof supermajority in the Senate, but there are one vote short in the House. So in order to override any of Governor Stein's vetoes, you either have to, it's either a math factor of who's in the room, or if everybody's there, you need at least one Democrat to vote with you. So Cunningham had voted in favor of this ICE Corporation bill. And she gave a speech that a lot of people didn't like on immigration ahead of the vote. And so this was, you know, six months ago, more than six months ago. And she came out in her campaign. apologized on Sunday night in this video for it. And then Monday, Governor Stein endorsed her opponent in a Democratic primary. Governors usually don't step into primaries, aside from just supporting whoever the incumbent is. Former Governor Cooper did this quite notably to former Senator Kirk DeVier, Democrat who had voted. Not over any speech or anything like that, but a vote with Republicans about school reopening during COVID, things like that. So that was, you know, different scenarios that's. But with Stein, I asked him after. Council of State on Tuesday why, you know, exactly he decided to, you know, get behind the primary opponent of Cunningham and he said it was the speech and that's what it is. You mentioned devere of Cumberland County and the effort to unseat him was ultimately successful. One thing to note that's very interesting about this Cunningham race is elections are math problems. And there are two primary challengers to Cunningham. One of them is named Vermano Bowman. He did not get Stein's endorsement. And he lost handily to Cunningham last cycle that he had run. I think it was like 85, 15%. And Rodney Sadler, he is a reverend who got Stein's endorsement. So it's interesting that Cunningham has... two primary opponents. My open question is going to be if there's a faction of people who support Cunningham and have long supported her, does that get you enough if you can splinter those two primary candidates or does one of them maybe drop out or does one of them maybe back Sadler instead? The way this primary is going to happen is going to be messy. Well, I think, like, more than an endorsement if it comes with money, that's a big factor. So Cooper's endorsement, DeVier came with a lot of money for Val Applewhite, who's the senator now. And, you know, a lot of people question is, are you, you know.

What's the strategy of spending more money within your own party if you are already going to retain that seat versus these other races in competitive districts? So we'll see how the how the money falls. Call me cynical, but this is not necessarily about one speech Cunningham gave on a floor. That's obviously a big focal point. I'm not trying to minimize that. But she is the most conservative voting Democrat in the entire state legislature, House Senate combined, if you go to their voting record. Right. And that is really what you. Democrats like Stein would like to take Amat to make sure that vetoes can be upheld. It's also worth noting that Stein has endorsed an incumbent named Rodney Pierce over Michael Ray, who was ousted by the narrowest margin possible, pretty much, last cycle. And Ray would presumably, if he were elected... override a bunch of Stein vetoes. Right. And then there's two other people, Shelly, Willingham, Nazif Majeeh, they're in Edgecombe and Mecklenburg counties, respectively. They have primary opponents, but Stein has not gotten involved in those races, maybe because... Their primary challengers are a little bit lesser known, but something worth monitoring. Some of it certainly is about party loyalty. And I just want to underscore one thing with Cunningham as I try to keep tabs on this from afar. Some of the districts that you're talking about, they're competitive districts, their squishy districts, their rural districts. Carla Cunningham is in a very blue district, and she hasn't been blue enough for party leadership. Yeah, whoever wins is basically... effectively going to be a state lawmaker in 2020. Well, the voters decide, not party leadership, you know, when it comes down to it. And Stein did say I asked if he was going to get involved in any other primaries and he said he hasn't decided it. Interesting. Do South Friday News round up here for a few more moments with. Our crew today, Don Vaughn, Brian Anderson and Danielle Bataglia, Zach Eans, who joined us via the Zoom. We're much appreciative of that. Zach has been under the weather. So we released Zach to hopefully his couch and evening and weekend of football. Danielle, you had a piece this week about North Carolina lawmakers topping lists for conservative votes and speeches. This is kind of a review from 2025, but I didn't want to totally let it go. Unpack this for us. Yeah, I like doing this. I don't know yearly, but you know, at least by year, by. buy annually, I don't know, because I like to round up what are different members of Congress do as they come in and out of Congress. I feel like I just said that word way too many times. But C-SPAN puts together a list looking at various things from how often they talk on the floor to how conservative they are, different things like that. And so I broke down the 16 members from North Carolina into like one list so you guys could see.

What was notable to me is that Representative Don Davis gives more one-minute speeches than any other congressman in the country, which is 32. He's given 32, which he likes to highlight things that are going on in his districts. Hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on. I'm sorry to cut you off, but I just cut you off. You said, you're saying of the 535 members of Congress, all of them, Don Davis has given more speeches than anyone. Yeah. That's wild. One minute speeches. More one minute speeches. He hasn't spoken for the greatest length necessarily. Sure, sure, sure. But still. Yeah. So one minute speeches are like, Don, what do they call them in the General Assembly? You love them. They're like the points of personal privilege. Oh my goodness. Yes. But see, I think North Carolina should take a page out of the federal congressional playbook. One thing Congress is getting terrific is minimizing that to one minute. Maybe if North Carolina did the exact same thing. I think one minute, most of it is like, oh, happy birthday to my seatmate or that sort of thing. You know, there are a few people who they are that, like, carry on about something. But they're usually pretty short. But it's like how many people are in the house. It's like everybody wants to get up and say something. There's an old saying from the North Carolina house. I remember from my time there, I'm coming back to you in a moment, Danielle, which is. In the house, everybody needs to say the same thing. There's a more eloquent way of saying it. How does it go? Everyone needs to say the thing before we can get out of here. Like, it can be said, but now everyone has to say it. Danielle, I'm sorry, go ahead. These are more things like stuff from back home. So like he talked about the school for the deaf out there, which was an adorable speech. He did sign language to them. You must go watch it. This week they honored Jim Hunt on the floor. I think that was actually representing Davis again honored Jim Hunt this week. So you'll see things like that. Also very notable, and I need somebody to break this down for me. I still need to dig into this more. But Representative Pat Kerrigan was listed as the most conservative member of all of Congress, which I would not have put my thumb on, but that was the ranking there. And I've never seen that for our delegation. Now that everything's been said, everyone in the North Carolina House has to say it. That's what I was trying to arrive at. Join us Monday on due south. We will reflect on the life, career, and influences of Jim Hunt. North Carolina's only four-term governor died last month at the age of 88, reflections of Jim Hunt Monday on due south. We're going to pinwheel it to get you out of here. And if there's time, I'm going to take a moment of a point of personal privilege here. But 30 seconds or so, what is on tap for you in the next week, Brian Anderson? I just wanted to highlight a story that I had. worked on in a newsletter. It was this pardon of Greg Lindbergh that's been on the table. There's been talk of, you know, Trump's bodyguard being among, former bodyguard being among the people Lindbergh has tried to get to help him. There's an interesting name and it is Chess McDowell. He is a lobbyist in North Carolina. He is a hunting buddy of Donald Trump Jr., the president's son.

And he is the brother of Congressman Addison McDowell. I could confirm that he is working to help Lindberg, the Durham billionaire, out on his pardon, who had pleaded guilty to a number of charges. Related to campaign finance. And bribery as well. So that is something that I just had to take this opportunity to highlight. As for next week, we're going to have early voting sites, State Board of Elections, firming those up. We'll see how that looks. Don Vaugh. There are, I believe it's 49 contested primaries in the General Assembly. And our team at the N&O and our colleagues at the Charlotte Observer, we are sending out candidate questionnaires. So that will be my big focus. So candidates listening, you know, pay attention. We're going to send you a Google form. Fill it out. DB, Danielle Bataglia. It is my last week in Washington, which I'm sure you all will hear about later from my paper. But I'm hoping to fit in as much as I can in the next week on some quirky fun things that our delegation does and has in the Capitol that are from North Carolina. And also, you know, we're watching all the congressional things like a pending government shutdown again. Transitions in the journalism field, Danielle, will be with us in studio in the months to come. We had a transition of our own here at WNC recently. Didn't get a chance to say goodbye to Will Michaels last year. Will is fine, but Will's no longer with WNC. Will has moved on to green pastures, perhaps greener, at NC Local, a new startup, non-profit news outlet, and we say adios to Will Michaels, a colleague, a friend, a steward of good journalism and fairness. Sad to see him go quite bluntly, but we wish Will the best, and we expect to hear Will's voice again here on these airwaves in the due south space in the weeks and months to come. This is Dues South, a production of WNC, and a broadcast service of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Our producers are Stasia Brown, Cole Del Charko, and Rachel McCarthy, technical director, Denarius Thomas, executive producer, Aaron Kiever. Theme music comes from Quilla for Linaina. Inge, I'm Jeff Tiberi, reminding you to head over to WNC.org slash doSouth. You can download, subscribe. And glean our podcasts and episodes on Apple, Spotify, wherever it is, you do the on-demand procuring. Enjoy your weekend. We'll talk to you again Monday at noon.

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